motoring
03 Mar 2023
Isuzu don’t sell cars here in the U.K. I’m not entirely sure they sell cars anywhere else either. A quick Google – just for clarity I hasten to add - reveals them to be “a Japanese truck and engine manufacturer, currently producing a selection of commercial and personal vehicles as well as diesel engines for automobiles, industry and boats”. A few of us may remember the Isuzu Trooper...
03 Feb 2023
Just before Christmas last year… Oh, hang on, it was Christmas the year before… I found myself deep in the Brecon Beacons courtesy of Ford’s UK PR team. The Mission was simple: Drive a new Ford Ranger across Sarn Helen’s ancient Roman roads - none of which appear to have been resurfaced in at least 500 years – in the kind of weather only a Welsh winter could throw at us. Snow, sleet, rain,...
06 Jan 2023
Having owned one in the past, I’ve always had a bit of a soft-spot for Skoda’s Fabia. Not only has the Fabia always offered surprising levels of comfort and economy, it’s also always offered a way to into Volkswagen Polo ownership; the reliability, the build quality, the know-how, without commanding the associated VW price tags. I had a 1.4 16 valve petrol Mk1 Fabia in Elegance spec -...
18 Nov 2022
Inevitably, it’ll go down in history as one of those days when you remember exactly where you were. Some were working; nurses, airport staff, the emergency services, motorway service station personnel, no doubt many more. It was a bank holiday, so thousands probably chose to watch the television. Others chose to travel.
Me? On the day of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, I was on my way...
10 Aug 2022
Here’s a question for you: Which car brand do you think, this year to date, is the UK’s best-selling? Ford perhaps? What about Vauxhall? Hang on! Surely, it’s Volkswagen. Or is it Toyota?
The answer is Kia.
Without going too “Financial Times” on you. The first quarter of 2022 began with Kia’s rather successful January, in which they sold 10,504 cars; sales of another 3,795...
02 Jul 2022
It’s hard to believe that twelve years have passed since I tentatively approached Volkswagen’s press office to see if they’d consider lending me a car. Whatever it was I wrote in my email must’ve worked: a few weeks later I found myself the custodian of what was then a brand-new 1.2 litre, Polo Moda; all £13,250 of it. With a whopping 69bhp, the capability to go from 0-62mph in 14.2 seconds,...
10 May 2022
How many times have you heard someone tell you that when they next buy a car “It’ll definitely be either Japanese or German”? I’ve even said it myself. Both countries are considered by those in-the-know (or those supposedly in the know, perhaps) to be the masters of motor manufacturing; their near-legendary reputations for engineering excellence and uncompromising quality come well-earned, and...
17 Apr 2022
I have it on very good authority – from an inside man, one might say – that Suzuki plan to introduce an all-electric vehicle in 2025. Quite what that vehicle will be however he wouldn’t, or couldn’t, say.
That’s not to say, that Suzuki aren’t currently doing their bit to help reduce fuel costs and CO2 emissions. All of Suzuki’s current passenger car range (note: The much beloved...
03 Feb 2022
My cousin Jayne called: “I’m getting married. The invitation is in the post”.
Great news! And I mean it when say it genuinely couldn’t happen to a nicer couple. But while she and soon-to-be husband Stuart busied themselves with the minor details: venue, rings, dress, cake etc, I was left pondering how I was going to get six people, and no doubt copious amounts of their luggage, from...
12 Dec 2021
I know, I’ve said it before: If only every car manufacturer made seats like Volvo does. After what quickly became a 12-hour day after a poor night’s sleep, spent at The Goodwood 78th Member’s Meeting, the soft leather front seats of Volvo’s latest version of their XC60 were a very welcome site indeed - and especially-so with the seat heaters set to their maximum. By the time, we’d slithered...
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